Traditional television and radio are progressing from being a one-way conduit of information, from a broadcaster to the public, into a more interactive experience. Before the widespread adoption of the Internet, this interactivity included, for example, cable television shows and networks devoted to selling goods and services to the viewing public over the telephone. Information about the goods or services would be broadcast to television viewers along with a telephone number and other identifying information that enabled an interested viewer to order the item over a telephone.
More recent examples include the development of pay-per-view and in video-on-demand services where a viewer can view a movie, sporting event, concert, television show, etc. by placing an order through the telephone or television cable with the content provider. While these and other examples show progress being made in the interactivity of traditional broadcast media, the interactivity still only generally tailored to the interests of viewers. The shopping programs display just one or a small group of items at a time, which may hold no interest for a significant percentage of the viewers. Similarly, the content selection for pay-per-view and video-on-demand is typically limited to a collection of movies and programs that is estimated to have the widest popular appeal.
The interactivity of audio-video media can increase substantially when those media are received through the Internet. Many services are available on the Internet for a user to receive and play streaming audio and video, typically through a personal computer. The size and global interconnectivity of the public Internet provide a user with an almost limitless choice of audio and video content to play, a vast library of information for research, and a large, dynamic collections of goods and services to buy. Unfortunately, the visual and audio quality of streaming media sent through the Internet is generally inferior to that of conventional broadcast television and radio.
Up to this point, the growth and development of traditional broadcast media (e.g., radio, television), and media received through the Internet have mostly followed independent paths. While it is possible today to display media content received from the Internet on a conventional television, or watch a television broadcast through a computer connected to the Internet, most media consumers do not watch or listen to media content this way. This is expected to change with the widespread adoption of devices that are capable of processing and playing media content from both traditional broadcasters and Internet content providers on televisions, home audio systems, home theater systems, personal audio systems, and other kinds of media playing devices.
In expectation of this convergence of broadcast and Internet media, systems and processes are being developed to deliver rich content media to the new media playing devices. This rich content media includes both conventional audio and video media content as well as descriptive content that provide information about people, places, events, objects, music, etc., in the media content being played by the playing device. Unfortunately, most of the rich media content available today mixes the media and descriptive content together into a single rich content stream. As a result, media players unable to process the rich content stream cannot play either the media content or descriptive content, limiting the compatibility of rich media with legacy, and even new, media playing devices. Compatibility concerns can discourage media consumers from buying new media playing devices, slowing the adoption of rich media content as a new, more interactive mode of experiencing media content. Thus, there is a need for systems and methods of playing rich media content that has good compatibility qualities for both existing and new media playing devices. There is also a need for systems and methods of creating rich media content that is compatible with both new and legacy media playing devices. These and other issues are addressed by aspects of the present invention.